Draco (18 sp.), the Oriental region, excluding Ceylon; Otocryptis (4 sp.), Ceylon, North India, Malaya; Ceratophora (3 sp.), Ceylon; Gonyocephalus (8 sp.), Papuan Islands, Java, Borneo, Pelew Islands; Dilophyrus (7 sp.), Indo-Malaya and Siam; Japalura (6 sp.), Himalayas, Borneo, Formosa, and Loo Choo Islands; Sitana (2 sp.), Central and South India and Ceylon; Bronchocela (3 sp.), Indo-Malaya, Cambodja, and Celebes; Calotes (12 sp.), Continental India to China, Philippine Islands; Oriocalotes (2 sp.), Himalayas; Acanthosaura (5 sp.), Malacca and Siam; Tiaris (3 sp.), Andaman Islands, Borneo, Philippine and Papuan Islands; Physignathus (3 sp.), Cochin-China and Australia; Uromastix (5 sp.), South Russia, North Africa, Central India; Stellio (5 sp.), Caucasus and Greece to Arabia, High Himalayas and Central India; Trapelus (5 sp.), Tartary, Egypt, and Afghanistan; Phrynocephalus (10 sp.), Tartary and Mongolia, Persia and Afghanistan; Lophura (2 sp.), Amboyna and Pelew Islands; Grammatophorus (14 sp.), Australia and Tasmania; Agama (14 sp.), North Africa to the Punjaub, South Africa. The remaining genera each consist of a single species. Eight are peculiar to Australia, one to the Fiji Islands, one to the Aru Islands, three to Ceylon, five to other parts of the Oriental region, one to Persia, and one to South Russia.
Family 52.—CHAMÆLEONIDÆ. (1 Genus, 30 Species.)
| General Distribution. | |||||
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| Neotropical Sub-regions. | Nearctic Sub-regions. | Palæarctic Sub-regions. | Ethiopian Sub-regions. | Oriental Sub-regions. | Australian Sub-regions. |
| — — — — | — — — — | — 2 — — | 1. 2. 3. 4 | 1. 2 — — | — — — — |
The Chamæleons are an almost exclusively Ethiopian group, only one species, the common Chamæleon, inhabiting North Africa and Western Asia as far as Central India and Ceylon. They abound all over Africa, and peculiar species are found in Madagascar and Bourbon, as well as in the Island of Fernando Po.
General Remarks on the Distribution of the Lacertilia.
The distribution of the Lacertilia is, in many particulars, strikingly opposed to that of the Ophidia. The Oriental, instead of being the richest is one of the poorest regions, both in the number of families and in the number of peculiar genera it contains; while in both these respects the Neotropical is by far the richest. The distribution of the families is as follows:—
The Nearctic region has 7 families, none of which are peculiar to it; but it has 3 peculiar genera—Chirotes, Ophisaurus, and Phrynosoma.
The Palæarctic region has 12 families, with two (Ophiomoridæ and Trogonophidæ, each consisting of a single species) peculiar; while it has 6 peculiar or very characteristic genera, Trogonophis in North Africa, Psammodromus in South Europe, Hyalosaurus in North Africa, Scincus in North Africa and Arabia, Ophiomorus in East Europe and North Africa, and Phrynocephalus in Siberia, Tartary, and Afghanistan. We have here a striking amount of diversity between the Nearctic and Palæarctic regions with hardly a single point of resemblance.
The Ethiopian region has 13 families, only one of which (the Chamæsauridæ, consisting of a single species) is altogether peculiar; but it possesses 21 peculiar or characteristic genera, 9 belonging to the Zonuridæ, 2 to the Sepidæ, 7 to the Geckotidæ, and 3 to the Agamidæ.
The Oriental region has only 8 families, none of which are peculiar; but there are 28 peculiar genera, 6 belonging to the Scincidæ, 1 to the Acontiadæ, 5 to the Geckotidæ, and 16 to the Agamidæ. Many lizards being sand and desert-haunters, it is not surprising that a number of forms are common to the borderlands of the Oriental and Ethiopian regions; yet the Sepidæ, so abundant in all Africa, do not range to the peninsula of India; and the equally Ethiopian Zonuridæ have only one Oriental species, found, not in the peninsula but in the Khasya Hills. The Acontiadæ alone offer some analogy to the distribution of the Lemurs, being found in Africa, Madagascar, Ceylon, and the Moluccas.